Prosecutor Anne Arundel leads murder case against doctor

Dr. James Houston was scheduled to be tried in two courtrooms on Monday, but the former health care executive was in prison, accused of killing his wife in a bloody stabbing. In both hearings, Anne Arundel State Attorney Anne Colt Leitess was at the center of a civil case in Annapolis that denied him access to his wife's assets and a failed attempt to set bail in Glen Burnie. Even in the civil trial, a judge paused to acknowledge her presence. In the end, lawyers from both parties flocked to meet her.

“I’m not used to seeing you in a civil courtroom,” one said.

Leitess, Anne Arundel's top prosecutor since 2019, has taken the rare step of presiding over the murder trial of Houston, whose arrest Friday revealed the gruesome details of a waterfront murder.

In Glen Burnie, Leitess painted a picture of a woman trying to escape her marriage. Yes, on August 9, Nancianne Houston visited her husband's Edgewater apartment, but it was for business. As police learned, she had no interest in rekindling their relationship. About a week before her death, she had told Houston that she was dating another man.

However, tax forms had to be signed on August 9th. When the officers reached the apartment, she was dead. Her husband was bleeding to death next to her.

On Monday afternoon, Leitess successfully appealed to a district judge to keep Houston in the Jennifer Road Detention Center without bail. After hearing from Leitess and Houston themselves, who appeared virtually, the judge said there was “no way” the defendant could be allowed back on the streets.

As of Tuesday, Leitess is the only prosecutor signed on to Houston's case by the state.

In a law firm with over 50 lawyers, Leitess has a lot to do. She recently joined a team of lawyers trying to remove a judge from the retrial of a Naval Academy midshipman acquitted of rape. The case was later dismissed, but Leitess's “strength,” she told the Capital Gazette last year, is trying complex murders. In addition to the Houston affair, Leitess is trying another murder case and trying to convict the suspected shooter in an incident that marked the deadliest day in Annapolis in more than six years. If the case goes to trial, she will try to prove it was a hate crime.

Charles Robert Smith, 45, was arrested at his mother's home on June 11, 2023, after shots fired sent city police to the 1000 block of Paddington Place. Witnesses at a nearby birthday party told investigators his mother was angry because a car was blocking her driveway. Witnesses said she stopped by the party, interrupted it and then called a government agency to report the vehicle, according to charging documents.

Mario Mireles, who has had frequent disagreements with the Smiths in the past, went to the Smiths' house and confronted the mother. Smith returned home shortly afterward and the argument became physical. Police said Smith shot Mireles and his friend Christian Segovia before retreating into his home and firing a rifle out his front window. Mario Mireles' father, Nicholas Mireles, was shot in the head and three others were injured.

It was the deadliest single event in Annapolis since the attack on the Capital Gazette newsroom in 2018.

Like Dr. Houston, Smith has been held without bail on Jennifer Road since his arrest, although Smith has remained largely isolated because of threats to his life, his attorneys said. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for November 12 in Anne Arundel Circuit Court.

Houston's next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 23 in Annapolis District Court, according to the Maryland Judiciary.

Leitess usually gets involved in high-profile murder cases that she says have “harmed” the community. In 2021, she secured a conviction for the man who killed five Capital Gazette employees, resulting in six life sentences.

Leitess's work in the case, which included proving that the shooter was mentally competent and not insane at the time of the murders, underscored her reputation for preparing complicated cases, a compliment received from both prosecutors and defense attorneys was pronounced.